Microsoft 365 Community CLI for Microsoft 365, 22 Dec 2022

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From YouTube: Introduction to CLI for Microsoft 365 and PnP PowerShell VS Code extensions

Description

In this 15-minute developer-focused demo, Adam Wójcik’s extensions deliver relevant code snippets, documentation, and script samples for commands within the environment you are coding. Simplifying finding scripts is the core driver for these extensions. Bring up commands by typing CLI or PnP (PowerShell) and then select to open script sample gallery or documents suggested related to command. New scripts and documents added to PnP libraries flow right into these extensions. This PnP Community demo is taken from the Microsoft 365 & Power Platform Development Community call recorded on November 24, 2022.

Demo Presenter
• Adam Wójcik (Hitachi Energy) | @Adam25858782

Supporting materials
• Repo - CLI for Microsoft 365 extension (Adam-it) | https://github.com/Adam-it/cli-for-microsoft-365-extension
• Marketplace - CLI for Microsoft 365 extension (Adam It) | https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adamwojcikit.cli-for-microsoft-365-extension
• Repo - PnP PowerShell extension (Adam-it) | https://github.com/Adam-it/pnp-powershell-extension
• Marketplace - PnP PowerShell extension (Adam It) | https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=adamwojcikit.pnp-powershell-extension

Learn more
• Microsoft 365 Unified Sample gallery - https://aka.ms/m365/samples
• Microsoft 365 Platform Community in YouTube - https://aka.ms/m365/videos
• Microsoft 365 Platform Community - http://aka.ms/m365/community

A

B

About me so, okay hi, my name, is Adam I'm, a father because yeah the kids are already 10 months old. But, to be honest with me, it's just like started yesterday, so I'm a Family Guy first now and developer second, but I love coding. My hobby is coding. My work is coding. My life is coding and okay, sorry too fast, so I'm a developer and not so long ago I joined the CLI for Microsoft, 65, maintainers and I. Try to help as much as I can and break as little as I may.

B

So, if you have any questions, do you need some additional guidance regarding CLI? Just pick me up and I if I can help I for sure, I will currently I'm working for in Hitachi I'm located in Poland, and you can find my linked in Twitter. So, let's move on. What's it all about so I'm gonna talk about a bit about scripts.

B

First of all, why do we need scripts at all and I'm, pretty sure if you worked in for a while now in SharePoint, on-prem or line or just general, in Microsoft, 365 I'm, pretty sure you already did develop some script, you had to develop some script to deploy some solution to do some maintenance, whatever create a list so with the scripts to automate stuff.

B

For example, we have a pipeline and there's a specific step in yaml we have a partial script to do something in the step or we just have a script working in the background process, or we just have a lot of steps to do and we make a script to do them all in one go. Then script is a perfect opportunity for like a one file documentation. This does this.

B

That does the stuff and it's documenting it because, for example, when you're creating lists, we can say it's someone, okay, you can go here, we can create a manual go. These steps then put this content type, because we always end this company at this content type and whatever, whatever you can just have a script. That does it all and is a perfect documentation of its own.

B

Then maybe you want to do a bit something more advanced, maybe something that's not recommended and it's not exposed like officially, but you did some sniffing around the rest API, which is for sure, not recommended, but we can leverage and use it. We can use it. Usually we can leverage via script, not even through the UI or maybe we have some company standards that okay, we do it this way. We have some logging here that we put in this direction.

B

Some scripts is also a perfect way to impose those and then maybe there's a really trivial thing, like the UI changed again right and the scripts and the the rest endpoints. Don't change so frequently like the UI at least I hope so so.

B

Script is a perfect approach here as well, so I'm pretty sure you will create a script in near future or you already done so and then you're gonna get like more and more and more you'll end up with a repository scripts and then, when you have another task like please direct script, to do.

A

B

ah I play this description like some time ago: I don't want to start from scratch, I want to find it and then the problem is to search for the right location. Probably maybe you have every every scripts in the same location or in the context of your projects, we'll see.

B

So that's the thing that happened in my case, so having too much scripts and too much work and trying to find it, and also a very, very thing that changed like all of our lives, and we start I used to work in office and then due to covet, we all just got kicked off to home and for like working remotely or working whatever you are currently, which is great for me.

B

But then I used to work like on two free yeah, most of the time free screens, not more but then I ended up like I, have a small place or or usually I work where I am not usually at my home.

B

So I ended up working on a single laptop screen and it turned out that switching context between Visual Studio code or Visual, Studio or other tools and browser is where I waste a lot of my time and then, when I, what I also mentioned uh my family got bigger, so I started coding like holding one hand, holding the kit and the other hand trying to write some code or trying to answer the team's call like and stand up and with your third hand, trying to find the teddy bear that just magically disappears all the time and with your forehand yeah I guess you know what I mean so I had a new situation in my life and, let's say new, maybe opportunities to to find a solution for for those problems and I try to find them first in the tools that are already on the market.

B

But the first problem was was: where do I actually restore my scripts? Maybe you already use this tool and presenting now I used it a lot and when I was working for interpret, on-prem and I. Think it's a really cool tool that has every every feature you can find to to have everything everything regarding scripts. In the context of your work, it has the documentation, you can load any Powershell module. You want.

B

You have the list of commands, you have the list of options right, but it's not great for me because my scripts are usually in the context of my full project, so I have a bunch of files, Javascript file, subscript whatever and then in the middle of it yeah. That's my script.

A

B

And it's in the middle, in the context of my work and usually as a script regarding this project, creating resources, I need or maintenance stuff whatever, and it's not always Powershell. Sometimes you know now we can have in javascripts in JavaScript whatever right. So also, this tool didn't support. All the libraries I use, those are not always partial modules, I dance, the favor also PNP CLI for Microsoft 65..

B

So maybe you have the same thing that I have- and this is these- are the two most frequently projects I added in the open source which don't have those scripts folder yeah, you can see them and I'm pretty sure I'll I would find a project. You were working on that also had this folder right, so I knew I need to fix my problem in vs code, so I created a prototype solution for me first and it had the code Snippets.

B

It's really perfect, like a kind of intellisense thing that gives you this autocomplete of a comment you are trying to find or write and you're. You don't need to switch between the browser, copy, paste, the command or whatever or remember it.

A

B

And, of course, there are many tools now that give you a great uh intelligence and context like GitHub co-pilot, but the co-pilot is actually giving you uh assumptions based on on the context of your current work. It doesn't have the actual knowledge about this Library, so this extension and the Snippets will be better because it's uh it's it's filled with the documentation and with the correct command.

B

So the GitHub co-pilot could assume that we have an option like web URL in this command, where it's not always in a recommend and then I had the docs embedded. This is this was like perfect for me not to transfer between the console to search for help or or between the browser. I had the list of command I created a list of the commands. I will show it in a while yeah.

B

Then we can browse every possible command for PNP parser model or a CLI for micro 65 inside of the scout, and it started only for me, but then, okay, I figured I, just added icons, some more information in the package.json and and add a nice readme file and publish it to the market and after a couple of days it got more than one downloaded and more than 100 times and I got an awesome feedback from Paul and waldek.

B

So thank you very much based on their feedback and ideas, I added a third feature which is a sample gallery and I'm, pretty sure you also had this problem like okay, I have to create a new script. I won't start from scratch. I'll start browsing the web. Maybe someone already done it, maybe in a better way or maybe along the way. I will learn a new approach for this problem right. So I hope you already know this page.

B

This is the PMP script sample Gallery mentioned before also on this call, and it's a really perfect place to find the like a Kickstart example you're looking for it has now more than uh yeah. Almost 300 scripts and it 189 scenarios and so scripts and different different versions of the same scenario. So I'm, it's pretty obvious that you it's a perfect uh spot to start. Looking for an example of, maybe you are trying to overthink you're trying to do currently so instead of transferring again to the browser.

B

I also embedded this in the context of your work and now, if you would just browse for Microsoft 365 and the visual studio code Marketplace, you will find free extensions, which I recommend all three of those, because two of those are mine, but the third one is also really cool to test out okay. So this is all for the slides and now, let's see the tool, and so, as I said you can, you can download either the PMP Powershell extension or the CLI for Microsoft 65 extension. They are really similar.

B

Currently, there is only one difference in the favor of the PMP Powershell, because I didn't have energy to transfer transfer this functionality to the CLI, and it would be a bit different uh because the at some level those Technologies differ uh and you can download it. Just you know browse download the dissolve and then when we just start and let's change the language to maybe let's say Powershell, the first feature I mentioned was the Snippets. When we start just writing a command.

B

As you can see, we get the full list of uh the context of maybe a comment we want to write and if we can add the push, the arrow to get a one-liner description about this command and maybe uh with all possible, uh not all possible, but the obligatory options that need to be populated anyway, when we write the command and if I just hit tab, I get the command written for me and I can move move between the next obligatory options, just hitting the tab button, and then, if I want more context about this command that I'm?

B

Actually writing. It's all working the same for the PNP bar shell. We can use one of the two commands uh created for with this extension. We can write if we are using CLI like I am now we started like writing CLI. If we want to check for a command for PNP our cell, we start with PMP pass PS, and then these are recommends we can use so for the CLI. We can either open the script sample Gallery, which I'll show in a while or open docs for this specific command, and then the command is pre-filled.

B

With what I selected if I hit enter and boom, that's there I get the full docs from the same thing you could browse, and even if you want to browse it, you can just go to go directly to this button and then you'll transfer to the direct page in the in your default browser to to this command.

B

But if you prefer not switching between contacts like I, you can just uh go here and check for help and check for all possible options here and examples, and now we also in CLI, add response. Of course you have the full list. So, on the right side, you can see the CLI okay.

B

This is remembering what I typed yeah before I have the PMP Financial extension extension like picker and the CLI, and here we have the list of all possible commands currently in this library, and we can of course search for the one we we want to use and then just pick it to to have this. This deck shown up uh the other thing at the top.

B

Okay, we can transfer to the to the side of this Library so either to the CLI homepage of the PNP Powershell homepage, or we can open the sample Gallery, which is the last feature I added lately, and uh this these are the same samples that you will find in the PMP script sample Gallery, but for this one technology, so I am presenting uh here in this extent, so all the samples that are valid for the CLI not for every possible tag, and we can search, of course, by name like on install or by the outer like, for example, me or by the command.

B

So let's say SBO list get, and here I can. We will see all scripts examples that are actually using this command and with we can go to the directly to the report of the script or with one click button. We can create a new file which is pre-populated with the contents of this example, and we can also do like transferring between uh from the command to the docs like okay, let's see I have this command I want to see it in other examples, no problem, let's uh go to the to the docs.

B

First I can read more details about it and then here on the right side, you have done additional button, so related samples which, which will go to the sample Gallery page already pre-filled in the filter, to get all the samples that is using this command. So with really low transferring like one one or two minor steps, you can browse the full docs of this command or get all the examples in the PMP community that are using this command. So we can kick off start and start working.

B

The one thing which is additionally added in the PMP Powershell, which is not present in the CLI yet is the tree view. So, in the comments uh search, of course, we can search like the flat list, but at the right at the at the top and the right side. We have have like the tree view. Then we have the command script and I can, for example, search for content type and see all the things related for the adding a content type.

B

The CLI extension doesn't have it yet because there will be like more granule like a tree view, actually not just grouped by the possible verbs and that's pretty all. Regarding the demo part I hope you liked it, and the last slide I have is a small kind request for you to give me feedback feedback feedback and to contribute as well. But of course it doesn't mean that you have to contribute to those extensions.

B

You may, of course, and and it would be really cool if you, if you would like to help me out, but of course contributing to BMP, Powershell or CLI for Microsoft 65 or adding a new sample to the PMP script. Samples repo is also a perfect way to improve these extensions, because this those extensions actually Leverage The Power of the documentation, put it in in those libraries in those repositories.

B

So if you are contributing to those especially samples or improvements in docs, then you're improving those extensions as well, so pretty awesome, and thank you a lot and then, uh if you could provide any kind of feedback, any comment: positive, negative, whatever, like yeah I, don't use this tool doesn't help me at all. It would be really great to hear it if you find a bug and you're like laughing, it's also great I. Like jokes, you can laugh with me.

B

Just let me know about this box, so I can fix it, because I would like to have this tool working for more the more users as possible. If you have any ideas, then let me know because I like to develop your ideas instead of mine. Of course, I have some ideas to improve this tool, but I'd rather do something that I know that will be actually used by more people and if you have any questions regarding those extensions or just CLI for Microsoft 65, just also, let me know, and if I can I will help.

B

So that's all I have to say and I think I'll give the voice back to you. David awesome.

A

I had a really really great job love these two extensions, fantastic work and, by the way, everybody's, loving, your slides as well so I think uh the general sentiment when you're showing your slides was everybody just loves them, so fantastic work. There.